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I UNITED STATKS OF AMERICA. ^, 



MILITAllY INCAPACITY, 



WHAT IT COSTS THE COUNTRY. 



By CHARLES ELLET, Jr., 

CIVIL ENGINEER. 



military Incapacity lias caused tbe loss of one campaigm 
Shall we allow it to cause the loss of another? 




ROSS & TOUSET, No. 121 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 
T. R. CALLENDER, COR. 3d & WALNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 

1862. 



{yix^(^ y^^ 



NOTE. 

The writer is perfectly aware that his little pamphlet on the "Army 
OF THE Potomac and its Mismanagement," was a very unpopular 
and unwelcome exposition of a fatal truth. But he did not write, and 
does not now write for popularity. He is in pursuit of no man's or | 
party's favor or patronage. 

Our country is sinking, not beneath the strength of the rebellion, 
but under the heavier hand of military incapacity. Foreign govern- 
ments begin to interfere in American affairs ; to enforce their own wills 
on a neighboring Republic, and to dictate their wishes to us. We are 
fast losing our proud position ; and he who would pause to think of 
his own popularity in such an hour of peril, would be unworthy of 
the loftiest privilege that a man, in this age, can enjoy — the right to 
assert his claim to be a citizen of the free American Republic. 

The writer offers his thanks to all those who have given him assu- 
rances of their appreciation of his previous feeble effort to uphold the 
honor of the flag by the only means left open to his exertions — teach- 
ing him, as their kind letters do, that the patriotism of his country is 
not dead, though that of our great and gallant Army has been, and isj 
still, most cruelly stifled. 

Georgetown, D. C, February 6, 1862. 



MILITlPtY INCAPACITY. 



Georgetown, D. C, 

February 6, 1862. 
The Memorial of a loyal citizen to the Congress of the United 
States, respectfully represents : That 

It is MiLiTABT INCAPACITY at the head of our Army that has 
enabled a rebellious population of four or five millions of 
people, without a recognized government, or naval power, or 
foreign commerce, or pretended skill in the arts, to set at de- 
fiance the entire military and naval resources of a brave, en- 
terprising, and patriotic population of more than twenty mil- 
lions of freemen. 

It is MILITARY INCAPACITY that allowcd four months of sum- 
mer and autumnal weather to pass by unimproved, and now 
announces the programme of an oflensive campaign, with a 
deteorating army, in mid-winter. 

It was MILITARY INCAPACITY that kept our impatient troops 
idle in camp, from August until January, at a cost of over 
two millions of dollars a day, and thus expended, in wanton 
inactivity and vain parades, more than threQ hundred mil- 
lio7i^ of tlie piiblic raoney. 

It is MILITARY INCAPACITY that has afi'ordcd the rebels the 
means of penetrating the puerile plan of an impossible sim ul- 
taneous advance along an extended front of five or six thousand 
miles, running through difierent climates and varying wea- 
ther, and given them time to fortify themselves on every line 
we have chosen for our approach. 

It is anLiTARY INCAPACITY that has dispatched isolated and 
unsupported expeditions to the Southern coasts, and there ex- 
posed them, by reckless distribution, in small commands, to 
the imminent danger of being cut ofi", as soon as they set foot 
on the main, by the idle militia and half-combatants whom 
the rebels have left at home ; while their organized " Con- 
federate Army " hlockades some three hundred thousand of 
our hrave men here on the Potomac. 



6 

It is >ULITARY INCAPACITY at headquarters that directed 
BuRNSiDE to the coast of ISTorth Carolina, there to fritter away 
his small force in harrassing a sea-board where probably half 
the people would have proved themselves to be loyal if they 
had been properly and promptly supported ; while the Port 
Koyal expedition, hemmed in by the rebels, is wasting away, 
and unable to move forward for want of the very reinforce- 
ments which are thus sacrificed by ignorance on the sand 
banks of Pamlico Sound. 

It was MILITARY INCAPACITY whicli bi'ouglit ncai'lv all the 
available troops in the country here to Washington, and kept 
them six months in their camps, while the enemy seized and 
fortified the blufts of the Mississippi, devastated Missouri, in- 
vaded Kentucky, and immolated the loyal men of East Ten- 
nessee with impunity. 

It was Military Incapacity which, clothed witli the abso- 
lute command of two or three hundred thousand brave and 
willing men, allowed the Potomac to be blockaded by land- 
batteries, while mere civilians sought in vain to induce the 
pre-occupation of the very positions where those batteries were 
established.'^ 

It was Military Incapacity at head-quarters which permit- 
ted the rebel General Jackson, with ten or twelve thousand 
men, to drive all our troops out of Virginia to the north side 
of the Upper Potomac, and shell the river towns in Maryland, 
and continue the work of robbery and destruction along the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in the very presence of count- 
less thousands of brave men, ready to tear their hearts out for 
very shame, without an attempt to cut him ofi\ 

It was Military Incapacity which withdrew Rosecrans and 
his command from the valley of the Great Kanawha, and or- 
dered them into winter quarters, in the fine weather of Au- 
tumn — and which now commands their return in mid-winter, 
when the roads on which they ouglit to march are nearly or 
quite impassable. 

It is Military Incapacity that seeks to substitute the dead 
weight of sleeping men for strategical combinations, rapid 
marches, unlooked-for surprises and dashing charges, and that 

* The writer refers only to his own personal eflforts to prevent this shameful 
surrender. 



marshal inspiration which of itself leads to confidence, victory 
and fame. 

It is iMjLrTARY Incapacity which deprives us of the im- 
mense advantages we might derive from om* superior means 
of railroad and river navigation on and north of the Ohio 
and Potomac — from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mississippi 
River — to appreciate and use the facilities this superior trans- 
portation aftbrds for deceiving the enemy as to the imme- 
diate object of our attack; to concentrate our troops and 
launch them on the positions or in the State where it is the 
tentiou to strike a quick and crushing blow — and even to 
deliver the blow before the rebels can determine the point 
where it is to fall. 

It is MiLiTAKY Incapacity that renders our commanding 
General unable to estimate the value of Time in war, and 
which induced him to let his soldiers sleep through all the 
bright sunlight of Autumn, while Victory, and the Tutelary 
Protectors of the Union, grieving over a proud and prosperous 
nation's danger, were beckoning him on to his glorious and 
neglected work, from every mountain-top of Western Virginia. 

It is Military Incapacity which has brought one of the rich- 
est countries on earth to the verge of bankruptc3nn six months. 

It is MiLiTAKY Incapacity which has made loyal people 
doubtful, thoughtful people anxious, and timid people hope- 
less of ultimate success. 

It was Military Incapacity that exposed the nation to a 
foreign menace, and dictated instantaneous compliance with 
an insolent demand, supported by an ostentatious display of 
military and naval force. 

It is Military Incapacity that has already excited the con- 
tempt of foreign governments, and which now subjects the 
country to the danger of foreign intervention. 

It is Military Incapacity that has tamed and degraded this 
proud people, and compelled every patriot, jealous of his 
country's honor, to hang his head for shame. 

It is MILITARY incapacity which now talks of plunging six 
or seven hundred thousand men on the prepared lines of the 
enemy, in order to accomplish in mid-winter, and by hloody 
hutchery, the work which might have been done in the autumn 
by intelligent strategy. 



Let our patriotic people not be misled by vain promises and 
yet vainer hopes. The rebellion is not, as it is represented 
in anonymous publications from tlie headquarters of the army 
to be, on the eve of its final overthrow.* Ignorance and puerile 
imbecility cannot overthrow it. Victories upon victories in 
Kentucky and on the Mississippi, thougli purchased by tor- 
rents of the dearest blood of the west, will leave it still in 
full vigor, in a more contracted field, perhaps, — though even 
that is doubtful — ^but more concentrated and in undiminished 
strength. 

This rebellion must be essentially crushed, if at all, quickly ; 
and it must receive its death blow in Virginia, where the 
military strength of its upholders is chiefly concentrated. It 
must be broken down by the capture, or by the irretrievable 
defeat of the rebel army of Manassas. And, since the pos- 
session of the south bank of the Potomac was voluntarily sur- 
rendered to the enemy by General McClellan — ceding to 
them the most convenient sites they could obtain for planting 
the batteries with wliicli they blockade the Potomac, and pro- 
tect their right flank — the advance of our armies must be 
mainly upon their left flank and rear, and by the way of 
Western Yirginia. 

I know the gallantry of our troops, the spirit of their ofli- 
cers, the patriotism of all. I know, too, the immensit}- of 
our armies, and the magnificence of their equipments, and 
something, I trust, of what men are capable of doing. But 
with all our extravagant expenditures, and boundless national 
energy, and multiplied resources, we have not yet taken the 
first and indispensible step towards making these vast prepa- 



* "The folds of the giant constrictor are now tiglitening around the rebel- 
lion, and the coming ?Ho»i</i,, (February,) will see it crushed out completely and 
forever." 

The editor of the New York Times, in quoting this promise, and submitting 
the letter containing it to the country, accompanies it by the assurance that it 
was "written by a person w/to speaks from (he hiijhest possible authority." 

This letter was dated at Washington, January 12, and will be found in tlie 
Xeio York Times of January 15. 

Other communications, obviously from the same source, and holding out the 
same promise, appeared about the same time, and were accepted by the press 
and the public as also of the highest authoritj*. 



9 

rations available for good — either the removal of an incom- 
petent General from the head of the army, with the appoint- 
ment of an intelligent and capable man in his place — or the 
distribution of the vast military power of the country under 
a sufficient number of independent Commanders, — whose mar- 
tial instincts will not be trammelled by official pretention and 
jealousy. 

As we now act — tolerating incapacity at the very head of 
the volunteer force called out for the defense of the country's 
honor and life — we not only do wrong to ourselves and our 
230sterity, but deep wrong to those noble Institutions, of which 
we are the appointed guardians — and of which, it is to be feared, 
we are ourselves scarcely yet worthy, — by holding them up to 
the eyes of mankind as the true parent of our present imbe- 
cility. But, in the name of Humanity, let us show that it is 
not those institutions, but only the individual wlio, for a brief 
period, was commissioned to act as the military Agent of the 
nation, which those institutions have rendered happy and 
prosperous beyond example, that is at fault. 

In a moment of alarm we placed a stranger at the head o^ 
the National Army, who had received an elementary military 
education, but on whom nature had not bestowed those rare 
qualities of heart and brain which constitute the real Gen- 
eral — the capacity not merely to know when to stand still, 
which every imbecile can affect, but the higher and rarer gift 
to be able to see lohen, where and hoio to strike, when the op- 
portunity of dealing a death blow is presented. 

But the accidental appointment of an inefficient General 
is not a misfortune peculiar to Republican Institutions. His- 
tory bears witness that no form of Government has yet af- 
forded a protection against that calamity. It will be long 
before England forgets the fate of her expedition under the 
scion of a noble house — the earl of Chatuam ; and we ail re- 
collect that France herself, — of which the very government 
is but a military organization — only six years ago was forced 
to withdraw her favorite General from his command before 
the parapets of Sebastobol, in the midst of the most memo- 
rable seige which the world's history has recorded — and to 
substitute anotlier in his place in the very heat of the battle. 

Our own Institutions furnish a j)rompt remedy for the na- 



10 

tion's and the army's paralysis ; and a fair opportunity is now 
afforded to the new Secretary of War, to vindicate by his 
treatment of this fatal malady, his claim to the praises which 
his friends bestow on him, and which the country has already 
accepted as legitimate, and which no one more than I myself, 
will rejoice to find are well merited. 

A country discovers its real heroes in tlie actual conflict of 
arms — -just as the sparks of fire, latent in the flint, are made 
visible by the shock of the steel hammer. 

It is war, earnest and real war, and not parades or reviews, 
which alone can draw out a nation's spirit and its real men. 
National calamities, of which, alas, we seem to be destined 
soon, after long exemption from this sad fat;^ of society, to 
have our full share — are the labor- throes which can alone 
give birth to the heroes of a struggling people. 

Let us not rest delusive hopes on the mere valor and strength 
of our patriotic army. An army cannot l)e so strong that a 
rash or ignorant Commander, clothed with absolute power, 
may not destroy it; just as a nation can never become so 
great, or so secure, that weak or corrupt rulers may not pros- 
trate it in the dust. 

The incapacity of General McClellan for military com- 
mand has already cost the country the temporary sacrifice of 
its national fame for spirit, courage and enterprise. It is 
about to cost rivulets of blood in enterprises in which no 
blood need have been spilt — to sacrifice in a needless winter's 
campaign, the future health and usefulness of tens of thou- 
sands of gallant men — in all probabilit}^, to involve the coun- 
try in a desperate foreign war — to give to nations jealous of 
Republican prosperity and progress, just or at least seemingly 
just, cause for interference — and, if continued in his position, 
to leave this great, proud and vigorous people, torn, humilia- 
ted, and exhausted. 

But, let the truth be sj^oken. These unfortunate results 
have been promoted by a large portion of that Fkee Pkess, 
once the boasted bulwark of the nation's iudependence — 
which has not only failed in its high duty in this hour of the 
country's sorest trial and greatest peril, but has lent its con- 
centrated aid, in obedience doubtless, often to a mistaken, but 
patriotic instinct, to palm this Incompetent, the author of so 



11 

mucli irreparable mischief, upon the credulous and deluded 
people, as a Hero. 

The American whose sad duty it may hereafter be to 
write the truthful hictory of the last few months, in which it 
has been our shame to live, will be compelled to record that 
the temporary decadence of his country was coincident with 
the almost universal corruption of its once Free, but now 
submissive Press. That, when the Press, witli many honora- 
ble exceptions, doubtless, was either intimidated, appalled, or 
subsidized, and quietly surrendered its great privilege of vindi- 
cating freedom of thought and honest expression, and accepted 
in its place the ignoble function of disseminating fulsome and 
disgusting praises of weak or corrupt place-holders — crouch- 
ing down before the accidental dispensers of the public pat- 
ronage, and bartering away !he honor of upholding the no- 
blest of institutions, involving the dearest hopes of mankind, 
for the favor of each new Secretary or his upstart ftivorites — 
it was then that from its pride of place, and, let us hope, for 
a brief season only, The Great Kepublic Fell. 



MEMORANDA. 

The Expeditions to the Southern Coasts. 

I submit these objections to the Southern expeditions, of which the 
plans and destination were so long and so carefuily concealed, but 
which seem now, at last, to be very fully devoloped. 

They are all so small and feeble that they can only harass the 
immediate coasts, but cannot venture to march inland, withont exposure 
to the imminent danger of being cut off by the rebels — and they must, 
therefore, remain essentially inactive, until they are driven away by the 
southern summer sun, or by the diseases which heat and exposure will 
induce. 

They are, on the other hand, all so large that, in the event of a f9r- 
eign war with any respectable naval power, they cannot L>e withdrawn. 

In either case it is greatly to be apprehended that they will prove to 
be cosily failures ; and in the hypothesis of the occurrence of a foreign 
war before they are recalled, they will be totally lost. 

The only remedy for this embarrassment — and one, let me suggest, 
which cannot be applied too soon — will be found in the prompt con- 
centration of all these isolated commands at Port Royal ; where, if 
properly handled, and in conjunction with an intelligent use of the idle 
Army of the Potomac, in Virginia, they can make a successful advance 
alternately on Charleston and Savannah. 

Then, in the event of a foreign war, superadded to our own domestic 
troubles, these forces, thus concentrated, and supplied in good season 
with adequate means of inland transportation, will be able, if such a 
necessity should arise, to fight their way across South and North Ca- 
rolina, into Western Virginia; or, across Georgia into East Tennessee 
— in both of which directions, should we then have a competent Com- 
mander-in-chief, they will find co-operating Union armies, and their 
own advance zoill be on the enemy''s rear. 

The present wide distribution of these scattered commands will serve 
to place them all in the power of the local militia, whenever they may 
attempt to land and march to the interior. The most available mili- 
tary base in the South, either in the event of, or apart from, the oc- 
currence of a foreign war, is Port Royal ; whence, by the aid of an 
adequate force under energetic command, we can advance upon and 
occupy the two chief harbors on the Southern Atlantic coast, and seize 
and hold the railroad systems of the most inveterate of the rebel com- 
munities. 



14 

Credit begins now to be claimed for General McClellan by those 
whose business it is to ring the changes of his chameleonic merits, that 
his stand-still policy is intended to restore the Union, by wearing out 
and disheartening the rebels. If that pretence were true, neither these 
hazardous and costly expeditions, nor an offensive army of seven hun- 
dred thousand men — which, together, are rapidly crushing the whole 
country down — were necessary or justifiable. 

If our purpose is only to blockade by land and sea — and stand pa- 
tiently on the defensive — we neither need a large army nor maritime 
expeditions to the southern seaboard. If our purpose is to put down 
this rebellion by the strong hand, the array should be used with cour- 
age, energy and skill. 

STEAM RAMS. 

It is not generally known that the rebels now hRve Jive steam rams 
nearly ready for use. Of these five, two are on the Lower Mississippi, 
two are at Mobile, and one at Norfolk. The last of the five, the one 
at Norfolk, is doubtless the most formidable, being the United States 
steam frigate Meriiraac, which has been so strengthened that, in the 
opinion of the rebels, it may be used as a eam. 

But we have not yet a single vessel at sea, nor, so far as I know, in 
course of construction, able to cope at all with a well built ram. 

If the Merrimac is permitted to escape from Elizabeth river, she will 
be almost certain to commit great depredations on our armed and un- 
armed vessels in Hampton Roads ; and may even be expected to pass 
out under the guns of Fortress Monroe, and prey upon our commerce 
in Chesapeake Bay. Indeed, if the alterations have been skillfully 
made, and she succeeds in getting to sea, she will not only be a terri- 
ble scourge to our commerce, but may prove also to be a most dan- 
gerous visitor to our blockading squadrons off the harbors of the 
southe'rn coasts. 

I have attempted to call the attention of the Navy Department and 
the country so often to this subject during the last seven years, that I 
almost hesitate to allude to it again ; and I would not do so here but 
that I think the danger from these tremendous engines is very immi- 
nent but not at all appreciated. 

Experience derived from accidental collisions shows that a vessel 
struck in the waist by a steam ram, at sea, will go down almost in- 
stantaneously, and involve, as has often happened, the loss of nearly 
all on board. 



15 



"The Army of the Potomac." 

Two months h^ve passed since tlie publication of my little pamph- 
let on "The Army of the Potomac and its Mismanagement," in 
which I demonstrated, by facts within my own personal knowledge 
and experience, that General McClellan was unequal to the command 
of the great volunteer army then, as now, lying idle around this Capi- 
tal. That jiamphlet, calm in its tone, deliberate in its expressions and 
truthful in aii its unanswerable facts, was made the object of nuiuerous 
assaults and misrepresentations by those servile pens that have done 
most to render the country the victim of that very Military Incapa- 
city against which I strove to shield it, and beneath which it is now 
fast crumblirg away. 

It is painful to ask the reader to look at the experience of those two 
brief, sad months ; to note the precious season for action wasted ; the 
contributions of a patriotic people squandered ; our miliitary preten- 
sions made a by-word of reproach all over the earth ; and our proud 
national flag, emblazoned by the grand and heroic founders of our In- 
dependence, lowered before a foreign menace. 

But such, briefly told, are the results of our blind confidence, as ex- 
hibited in the two months last past. We will soon be able to compare 
them, here at Washington, where General McClellan commands in 
person, with those of the succeeding two — when, under the same mili- 
tary guidance, both our foreign and domestic relations will have been 
further developed. 

CHARLES ELLET, Jr. 
Georgetown, D. C, February 6, 1862. 



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